Who is johnny bench

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Though barely in his 20s, Bench comported himself like a veteran. During just his second season in the majors, he reckoned that the arm of his pitcher, Gerry Arrigo, was tiring. So Bench called for a curveball. Six years older than Bench, Arrigo declined. When Arrigo reared back and threw a fastball, Bench caught the pitch barehanded.

Point made. As Bench once recalled to Sports Illustrated , "I didn't want to show him up, but And I like it. A bon vivant, he knew the best restaurants in every NL city.

He subscribed to Time and made it a point to know the landed gentry of Cincinnati. He began producing and hosting a daily morning show on local television, interviewing Bob Hope and Gerald Ford, among others. He hired his team's young radio announcer as his sidekick. Confident and self-possessed, Bench was a wallflower compared with the team's shaggy-haired outfielder. For a time Bench and Pete Rose were cast as contrasts: the graceful, polished, socially ambitious catcher versus the gritty, dirt-on-the-uniform, what-you-see-is-what-you-get grinder.

While that was an oversimplification, an unmistakable chill passed between them. Who was the alpha dog? But this was never to the detriment of the team. The Reds of the '70s were an extraordinarily close unit; many of the players lived in the same apartment complex. It didn't matter.

None of it makes a difference. You could go to a bar after a game and take a team picture because we all hung out together. Nor was the team destabilized by the social stresses of the late '60s and '70s. While some teams were questioning and challenging convention—the A's presented themselves as a mustachioed band of rebels—Cincinnati players offered little push back to team strictures banning facial hair, decreeing that the white-and-red uniforms show only a certain amount of stocking and demanding that players "show proper posture" in the dugout.

The team's manager from through '78, Sparky Anderson, was a revered figure whose decisions went largely unquestioned by his minions. He made you feel like a professional. Bench jokes that he dates himself when discussing his salary. For another signifier of how times have changed, he talks about the basketball team he and his teammates—including Rose—formed during the offseason.

They'd barnstorm Ohio, playing games mostly for charity. According to Rose, the team went 47—4, losing only to the alumni teams of the and '62 NCAA champion University of Cincinnati squads.

Eventually Reds management forced the team to dissolve after centerfielder Bobby Tolan ruptured his Achilles tendon in one game. A year later the Reds swept the Yankees. The Big Red Machine's bill of particulars: five seasons, four division crowns, three pennants, two World Series titles. Bench is reluctant to make "best ever" pronouncements, but others will. Suffice to say that when "Sports Dynasties" is a Jeopardy! Bench had, by '75, cemented his status as the finest practitioner of his position.

He made 14 All-Star teams, and he won 10 Gold Gloves, every year from through ' For the sake of comparison, Buster Posey has one. Midway through his career, his body launched an insurrection.

His hips ached constantly, the legacy of a car accident Bench endured as a teenager. His knees were inflamed from infinite home plate collisions. He had back trouble, surgery to remove a lesion on his lung in , and he broke his left ankle in Half a lifetime later he still recalls the rough treatment he received from unsympathetic fans. Then, when you walk out of your office, they boo you again. The next thing you know, you're back in your office, you're not coming out.

Bench took solace in some advice he received from two men. Bobby Knight, legendary basketball coach and longtime friend, told him, "A critic is a legless man who teaches running. They cheer like mad until you fall. Over the final three seasons of his career, Bench caught only 13 total games.

He retired in , having played his entire career in Cincinnati, and did not agonize over the decision. Years later John Elway asked him, "How did you know when to retire?

Bench had a simple answer: "When you can't be John Elway anymore. I wasn't earning it. After baseball Bench was host of the classic children's show The Baseball Bunch, which ran for six years.

He was a regular on the motivational-speaking circuit and the spokesperson for a Cincinnati bank. He'd go hunting with his pal Knight and golfing with any of his innumerable celebrity friends. When the Reds retired Bench's uniform number 5, it was the second time the number had been retired.

In , the Reds retired number 5 in honor of catcher Willard Hershberger who had committed suicide during that season. They reactivated it in See also Magazine covers External links JohnnyBench. Universal Conquest Wiki. December 7 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

August 28 , Cincinnati Reds vs. Philadelphia Phillies , Crosley Field. Cincinnati Reds - Johnny Bench is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Preceded by: Tom Seaver.

National League Rookie of the Year Succeeded by: Ted Sizemore. Preceded by: Willie McCovey. National League Most Valuable Player